The first step in building your platform is to decide what your want your platform to say about who you are and what you have to offer.

Are you and author?

Do you have a product?

Are you a web designer?

Are you a copywriter?

Are you a publicist?

Are you a freelance writer?

Are you a marketer?

This is by no means a complete list of possibilities for platforms that showcase what you have to offer people who visit your online platform.

Consider how you will tell your story online. Is a website with a blog, a solo blog, and then what about social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others best for getting your story online and in front of people to start creating relationships.

It’s hard to sell to people without them trusting you. You build trust through relationships and engagement with visitors to your platform.

Just like in life, it takes time to build relationships and trust. It takes patience and perseverance to make it online the right way. There are no shortcuts to building trust, you must prove your trust worthiness.

If you’re like me, long on ideas but short on cash, not wanting to go into debt to create your plat form, there are ways to create your platform using free sites.

You will have to choose which free platform resource(s) is right for you. Yes there is a learning curve since most will be Do-It-Yourself (DIY).

You’re probably thinking free means using the same templet as someone else, which is true, but it is about what you have to say on your platform that counts.

It is your content that will score your position on search engines and drive traffic to your platform if you are willing to put in the work required to get your platform into the online world call the Internet.

Your age or when you started doesn’t make a difference, you just need to start and work at it and learn even if you can afford to pay some one to build your platform for you. You should learn bout your platform even if you aren’t the one who built it. Learn some coding and learn about the host of your platform so you you can modify it if you have to.

Not knowing what’s going on in your platform can cause you problems with search engines.

Your content and frequency of fresh content is what rates with search engines and drives traffic with relevant content to what people are searching for.

How often you update your platform with fresh content is up to you but the more often.

The first step is to consider your niche and the content relevant to that niche.

Content is not about your product or services. Content is about educating, engaging, helping, and informing your readers to build relationships, not sell your stuff.

This may sound counterproductive, but content is establishing relationships to build trust. Would you buy something from someone you don’t know or engage in a business deal with someone you don’t know? Then why should your readers?

The art of selling online is building trust through establishing relationships, not trying to sell your product or service to everyone that visits your site. You start by helping them through their pain point first before you try and sell.

I may be in the minority, but I believe in helping visitors to my blog and social sites over trying to sell them my services. I am willing to answer questions or offer suggestions to everyone; do you.

Don’t use jargon or large words in conjunction with complex sentences when plain English will suffice. Readers of your content should get the point you are making with ease by the use of concise writing.

Content marketing involves all content from social sites, blogs, and websites with relevant content to your product or services. Your content is your chance to position yourself as an expert in your niche and build trust with your traffic by engaging with visitors.

Your content must be relevant to what people are searching for by using search engines. Also, remember, nothing happens overnight. It takes some time to build a following and trust. If you expect instant sales, you are going to be disappointed.

Be engaging and helpful first before trying to sell products or services. A chance for you to talk more about your product or services is via newsletters when a visitor signs up for it on your site.

Content marketing might be an email if visitors opt in to receiving emails for special sells or special coupons or email only products or services and have an easy way to opt out of emails.

Send a free item if they opt-in to receiving a newsletter or emails. Many people like getting something free, and are probably willing to share their email address with you to receive it.

Free should mean free, not free if they pay shipping and handling. Something you can send an electronic copy of, and always be courteous with a thank you note when the sign up to your list of people willing to receive your emails or newsletter.

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

A content marketing strategy can leverage all story channels (print, online, in-person, mobile, social, etc.), be employed at any and all stages of the buying process, from attention-oriented strategies to retention and loyalty strategies, and include multiple buying groups.

Content marketing is comparable to what media companies do as their core business, except that in place of paid content or sponsorship as a measure of success, brands define success by ultimately selling more products or services.”

This may be a bit too formal for some. My definition of Content Marketing is this:

The creation of value added content (any medium such as a blog, website, social media, networking, etc.) that explains what you as an entrepreneur, freelancer or small business owner have to offer that is of benefit to your customers.

I would also like to add the definition of the term “copy” which I use quite often when writing about blog posts, articles, press releases (PR), etc.

According to the definition found in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition “Copy” is:
4 a: matter to be set esp. for printing.

b: something considered printable or newsworthy – used without an article
c: text esp. of an advertisement

Copy is anything suitable for printing. Is a blog post suitable for printing? When you hit the post button, your post is electronically printed. Therefore, anything created that involves text is copy.

Content consists of video, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, etc. Content is any media that positions you to drive traffic to your business with an audience looking for what you have to offer.
In subsequent posts, I will be covering more about the marketing aspect of content as it relates to your ideal customer.